Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More Linky Love: Xyrem, Lyrica & Neurontin, Oh My!

I am STILL under the weather fighting off this crazy upper respiratory infection that I just can't seem to shake ... 16 days and counting now. My spouse, on the other hand, caught my bug and came down with a case of 'just the sniffles' a few days ago. He reminds me of my Dad, who almost never go sick.

Hmmph! Sometimes life seems so unfair...

I'm afraid I only have the energy for a few short posts this week, as I am on a deadline to get some paperwork completed for Social Security by March 1st and my battle with the cold that doesn't end has put me way behind my timetable for getting it done. I tried calling several times to get an extension, but since I have not heard back, I am wary about presuming I can have a few extra days to get this done.

Thankfully my fibro friend Dot over at Fibro World left me a comment and let me know she also wrote a post about Xyrem that has the distinction of being featured in this week's Grand Rounds blog carnival hosted at MD Whistleblower. Reading her current post made me realize that Dot and I are in the same boat when it comes to fibromyalgia: we both suffer severe, intractable symptoms that, so far, have been mostly unresponsive to available treatment options. We also share a keen sense of humor, a love of blogging and hope that things will be different for us in the future.

Then my friend Jolene from Graceful Agony stopped by again to let me know of breaking news: Lyrica and Neurontin are under fire for not being the pain and fibromyalgia cures they were touted to be. In the case of Lyrica, it seems a researcher admitted that he falsified data that showed the medication actually helped treat pain and now faces 10 years in prison and a hefty fine. Here in the US, pain sufferers have filed a class action lawsuit against the makers of Neurontin stating that it was falsely advertised as a pain medication.

Guess I now have my answer as to why these drugs never worked for me...

I seem to remember that just last month the fibromyalgia drug Savella was facing a recall because it appears to cause high blood pressure in about 20% of people taking it to treat fibromyalgia. You can read more about this by clicking here: Group urges recall of drug for fibromyalgia. After discussing this with my neurologist, she reconsidered and decided that Savella was probably not a good choice for me.

Thanks ladies for helping me put this blog post together. Now it's back to the paperwork, which says it should only take an hour to complete. In reality, is taking me several days so far, and I am only about halfway done.